Front page of this week’s Engadget magazine is Stephen Elop. You can download it in various formats. On the PDF, it’s pages 44-57.
Here’s the PDF.Distro Issue 13 PDF
- early in 2012 you should see some very exciting Lumia products from us. (lol, I hope not ‘early 2011′ which meant August)
- Lumia – It’s about the promise of the Nokia brand and what it stands for.
- US – working with MULTIPLE operators
- Differentiate Lumia experience in hardware, software and services
- Highest priority to compete with Android and Apple
- Fragmentation not just a buzz word. A real concern in any operating environment.
- Thinks skinning might be confusing for the developer and consumer (it’s funny when I see mates with different Androids and they’re like, but mine can’t do that. Mine doesn’t do this on the homescreen :S) On WP, there’s minimal relearning.
- As a result of the structural changes, you are seeing results. More than people expected, already in the early stages of the implementation of this strategy
- Not surprised by the response to N9. Reiterates what’s been said many times – elements of N9, the design, the user experience, swipe (lol not the Swype experience as in text) as well as the Qt environment. Those will live on in future Nokia products.
- Beauty of N9 and put windows phone in it. That’s exactly what we did.
- We’ve also given some clues about the Qt development platform.
- Stay tuned, it’s going to be very interesting.
- The idea of having devices for connoissuers, high end devices and speciality devices is something you will see from Nokia, there will be examples of that.
- What we’ve said about the underlying MeeGo environment is that it’s moving into the lab. Who knows what comes out of the lab. Stay tuned for that, but nonetheless, you’ll see some interesting speciality things over the years ahead.
- Not about being the Nokia that tries every OS, first whilst in this challenging period is focus on WP (and as that goes well, more focus in the labs!)
On Nok – MS working together on WP
- Why no FFC? Decisions needed to be made for the FIRST markets Nokia was entering. What elements were most important balanced against the price points (and Nokia wanted volume, remember?), knowing that future devices and capabilities were coming (there, for certain next Lumia will have a front facing camera. As we’ve said before, the core experience of Lumia now is just right for the market it’s entering)
- On things WP doesn’t currently support – e.g. NFC, or dual core. Tim asks is that frustrating? Elop says NO as they have a good visibility into and influence on future of WP.
- Elop knows what’s coming, what’s ahead and know different timiongs for different markets. At end of the day though, what Nokia needs is to land well is the quality of the overall experience.
- Speaking dual-core/single core – in terms of experience in Lumia 800 against those devices with “more power” I’ll put our experience against any other experience ALL DAY LONG. (Damn right. Symbian fans have said it time and time again, and now it’s really true with WP too that it doesn’t need super high end hardware. It would be nice to brag about and add some inches to your ego but the old gen are already fast…and the Lumia is even faster. Remember in several reviews this was highlighted, e.g. Jon Rettinger of TechnoBuffalo made this exact point). User experience is king. Not list of features, what it can or can’t do, but how you do everything.
Nokia on WP is not just telling Microsoft what they want/don’t.
- They jointly plan the future of the software and hardware.
- They have a common team of people who works through those.
- They also have to imagine things consumers may not yet know is important but Nok/MS thinks will be important and want to set a direction or have innovation (any guesses? Perhaps NFC is a clear one)
- Have to balance out those factors against the physicality of how many engineers for a period of time can deliver that at the right quality? They have to make important decisions on what goes first, what’s more important. Nokia is in constant discussion with MS and actively involved in participating in the direction WP goes. (They are not just a standby HTC/Samsung-I-put-any-OS-inside)
- Elop points out again it’s advantageous to have many partners in WP. The competition this way is not a single manufacturer but Android and Apple. (Nokia, remember will be taking the lead in WP in 2012, so are effectively Nokia-WP vs Android/Apple with Androids own HTC/Samsung fighting for the Nokia-WP crew. Guys, right now, in this nascent period, it is abundantly important that Nokia has ‘partners’. Right now folks can go with WP on other manufacturers if Nokia hasn’t got the right set of hardware instead of Apple of Android. Eventually they will be the dominant player and can bring all the right hardware stuff first to be the main choice for all interested in WP. Those used to WP can just move onto the best WP which would undoubtedly be Nokia. This is not something you’d want to say though as HTC and Samsung could just back out entirely and focus on their success with Android.)
- Elop says he can’t speak for the thoughts/feelings of other manufacturers on Nok/MS partnership but reckons they are happy that someone else is in WP, especially with the Google acquisition of Motorola.
Source My Nokia Blog
